Democrats regained control of the Senate and House of Representatives in last week’s mid-term American elections, and that has implications for U.S. agriculture and trade policy that could affect Canadian farmers.
The majority party in each house gets to select the chairs of congressional committees, including the agriculture committees. Two southern Republicans will be replaced by midwestern Democrats. Tom Harkin of Iowa will replace Saxby Chambliss of Georgia in the Senate and Collin Peterson of Minnesota will replace Bob Goodlatte of Virginia in the House of Representatives.
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The change will be important as the committees turn their attention to a new farm bill, country of origin labeling, the environment and biofuel.
The political shift does not signal wholesale change to agricultural policy. Harkin and Peterson are strong supporters of providing government assistance to farmers. Their midwest constituencies are happy with the farm bill tradition of focusing almost all support on corn, wheat and soybeans, but there will likely be changes that affect Canadian farmers.
Peterson is a strong supporter of mandatory country of origin labeling, or COOL.
It was approved as part of the 2002 farm bill, but implementation was regularly delayed, partly at the request of meat packers who say it will be costly and difficult.
Canada’s livestock industry is worried that the costs of mandatory COOL, such as segregation of imported cattle, would lessen American packers’ interest in buying Canadian livestock.
Canadian agricultural exporters might also be concerned that the Democrats tend to be a little more trade cautious than their Republican rivals.
For example, Harkin regularly urged the U.S. Department of Agriculture to be cautious when drafting rules to reopen the border to Canadian cattle following the BSE crisis.
But Canadian grain farmers, enjoying some of the highest grain prices in decades thanks to the ethanol boom, don’t have to worry about a change in U.S. biofuel policy.
New House speaker Nancy Pelosi has said that in the first 100 hours after the Democrats take control of the House in January, it will enact a number of measures, including rolling back subsidies for big oil companies, and instead use those funds to promote alternative energy sources.
Harkin and Peterson are also big supporters of ethanol and its place in the next farm bill will likely be more prominent.
In a way, their support for ethanol reduces the financial burden of funding the farm bill. Payouts from the farm bill next year will be well down because of the high price of corn, driven up by ethanol demand.
And although the U.S. deficit continues to soar due to military and security spending and U.S. president George Bush’s tax cuts, there appears to be little interest from either party in scaling back spending in the next farm bill.
During the final months of the World Trade Organization Doha round, the U.S. administration made offers it said would have required major cuts in the 2007 farm bill. There is disagreement over whether the offer was serious, as agriculture secretary Mike Johanns says, or just window dressing, but either way, congressional agriculture policy leaders weren’t happy with the administration’s spending cut stance.
But the Democrats might propose changes in the way the money is spent. Likely they will push for more money for conservation and environmental initiatives.
They might also push for a mandatory national animal identification program for cattle. Peterson has argued it is the only way to fully re-open Asian markets to U.S. beef.
